November 24, 2013
GREATER NOIDA: India's largest and only profitable domestic airline IndiGo is likely to go public and also induct small planes in its fleet to improve regional connectivity in the country. Without disclosing the timeframe, IndiGo promoter Rahul Bhatia said both these issues were on the radar.
November 24, 2013
GREATER NOIDA: India's largest and only profitable domestic airline IndiGo is likely to go public and also induct small planes in its fleet to improve regional connectivity in the country. Without disclosing the timeframe, IndiGo promoter Rahul Bhatia said both these issues were on the radar.
"There is certainly a market for smaller aircraft in India. We are looking at it but when will we induct these aircraft I cannot say…. It will happen sometime but not tomorrow (meaning immediately)," Bhatia said here Saturday at the launch of a $25 million state-of-the-art pilot training facility IndiGo's parent company InterGlobe has launched with CAE.
Bhatia, who is InterGlobe Enterprises group MD, said he is yet to decide on the kind of small aircraft or the number that the airline will use. "We are yet to decide if it is going to be a part of IndiGo fleet or a subsidiary," he said.
IndiGo had declared a profit of Rs 787 crore last fiscal and is now gearing up to tackle increased competition from new players that will soon take to the skies like Tata's JVs with AirAsia and another with Singapore Airlines. Bhatia said that IndiGo may go public. "May be at some point, although not imminent. It is not going to happen tomorrow," he added.
About the impending competition, he said: "Everybody will have to compete. The fittest will survive. We welcome the competition. But India is an enormously underserved market, and there is room for every one to survive."
Bhatia's rare media interaction came during InterGlobe Enterprise, the parent company of IndiGo, jointly launching the pilot training facility with Canada's CAE called CAE Simulation Training Private Limited (SATPL) here. This facility will train 5,000 pilots a year.
When asked about prevailing high fares, Bhatia said input costs wee very high in India. "Airline business was high currency business but in IndiGo we try to keep the fares low. We plan to keep fares low, fill the planes with passengers and earn profit," he said.
Courtesy: TNN
